Mother of a Monster
by infiniteworld8
Summary: Sophia Leandros is more than just a whore, cheat and thief. She was once a daughter, a mother, a human...but the Auphe leave nothing behind of good.


I am Sophia Leandros, born of the Vayash clan. I'm a fortuneteller, a con artist, a thief, a daughter and the mother of a monster.

Some say the Vayash are a clan of luck and fortune. Those who know us know we are a clan of misfortune. Some of the worst things that have been created in the world were born from our lineage. We have been the sires to many abominations. Little did I know that I would be the creator of another.

We travelled throughout the country conning, selling bartering and occasionally stealing. After all a sensible person should be able to keep their money and those who couldn't deserve to lose it. We knew of the otherworldly, of the Pucks, Peri's and the other supernatural or preternatural creatures that weren't known by most humans. We, the Vayash, had seen things that most people only dreamed about.

But the Auphe were a creature from stories. I had never seen one and after hearing my grandmother's stories of them I had no desire to. They were a horror that was nothing more than a campfire tale; I thought I would never have reason to cross paths with such evil.

The world always seems set out to prove our assumptions wrong.

I was thirteen the first time they came. The river was cool, after a long day of travelling. I stepped from the water, wet hair trailing down my back as I pulled on my dress. A voice hissed out from the darkness. It was the sibilant hiss of a snake, a voice of murder, chaos, and madness. My hands stilled from doing up my buttons and my eyes searched the darkness.

A flood of cold pulsed through my body at the sight of dark red orbs glowing out from the darkness. I couldn't speak as the creature came nearer. Its skin was paler than pale, almost translucent. Its teeth were like razors, white hair hung limply down and its hands ended in curved claws. I had no idea what it was, all I knew was that it made my heart hammer with fear.

My feet felt rooted to the ground as it stalked closer. The creature had others with it. They were the same, but the one in front of me had my attention fully. He—somehow I knew it was a male brushed his claws against my skin. I shivered as the nails rasped against my flesh.

His mouth struggled to form human words. "You are ours. Yess…you will be one of them."

Before I could react his claws swiped out catching me across the abdomen. My dress ripped and a line of blood appeared, drenching the cloth. The scream I finally let out was drowned in my ears by the laughter of the creature. I knew what it was now.

It was an Auphe.

And it wanted me, for what I didn't know…

The cut burned like fire across my skin and I knew I was marked.

Just as the others knew when they saw the lines going across my body and the footprints still in the wet mud of the riverbank. I heard the whispers; I saw the looks of fear. They were scared, as was I. There were tells of what the slash across my abdomen meant, tales of what had happened to those that were scarred but were not killed. It was a mark of ownership, of possession.

The Auphe would be back to collect what was theirs.

And they did come for me.

They came to make me create a monster…and a mere human cannot deny the will of evil.

I, Sophia Leandros, was the person who birthed the monster who could end the world.

XXX XXX

They came again at sixteen. They had watched me in between their first visit and now off and on. I felt their eyes peering out of the darkness, but when I turned there was nothing to see. Sometimes in the dirt outside my family's tent their tracks would be seen. Occasionally a fresh kill was left, just where I would discover it. Deer, pheasant, even once a young foal, all eviscerated and left for me to find them.

My family, my clan, were afraid of me, they were afraid of why such evil would want me. The whispers grew and I tried not to listen. The Auphe were leaving me gifts, they were the gifts that would have been given to a female Auphe before she came into season.

I pretended I didn't hear my grandmother's whispers. I wanted to not believe it. Every night as I pulled my dress off I examined the claw marks across my belly, I tried to forget the promise of the claim torn into my skin and I prayed to everything that was and wasn't that it would be able to avoid my fate.

Years passed and I grew somewhat complacent. By the time I turned sixteen the Auphe hadn't even been near in six months. Perhaps, my grandmother had been wrong, perhaps their fascination with me had waned, those were the thoughts I wanted to think.

They came in the dead of the night. Everybody was dancing near the campfire, fiddles and flutes and swirling skirts and embers. I crept back to my tent as the night grew. I barely had time to scream as ice cold hands pulled me up into equally cold arms.

Red eyes peered at me through the gloom. I heard others, my kin rushing to help, but the creature whispered to me. "Be not afraid, youngling, we have chosen you for a great purpose." Then it laughed, tossing back it's mane of sickly white hair and showing needle sharp teeth. The smell of rotting meat was on its breath and murder was in its eyes.

It glided into the night with me in its iron grip. Time passed, cool air blew through my night gown and then I felt something that felt like reality was tearing around me. The world seemed to give a silent scream, when I looked up the sky was a dirty yellow, and the stars had disappeared.

"Welcome to our home." The words grated in its throat as if it wasn't used to speaking, and then it said something else. The sound was like glass grating my ears. If I weren't already retching from the reality, ripping sensation of the gate I had travelled thru the voice of the Auphe would have made me do so. The Auphe dropped me to the ground and stood waiting until I finally was able to raise my head.

I regretted the action at once as I saw not only my kidnapper but many more like him—somehow I knew the creature had stole me was male…just as I knew that the one who had marked me was.

"We will be one." I didn't understand what he meant; I didn't want to understand. Some time passed, they danced around me excited, like wolves surrounding a deer right before the kills. They forced a liquid I could barely stomach down my throat that tasted like ash and burned like fire. They poked and prodded me for hours before one finally parted the group. The others drew back and I saw that it was the same one as before. He stretched out a hand, claws ripping into my skin as he pulled me. He dragged me forward ignoring protests and weak attempts at warding him off. Through it all he cackled, an insane murderous laugh.

The cave I was dragged into was dark, and had the metallic smell of blood and decayed flesh. I wondered was that what was in store for me, but my wonder didn't last long. Instead he ripped my dress tearing the lower half and forced me down. I felt icy cold skin pressed against my own and cruel claws digging into my flesh and he held me in place and as he forced himself inside.

I screamed at the agony, cries for help, mercy, pleas were all intermixed and all heard and disregarded. Time passed in an agony of violent movement, and force and then I was released.

"Mother, you will be mother." His voice grated with terrible glee over the human words.

I sobbed curling away as far as possible. The creatures laughed, and then I was shoved up right and led out onto the reddish rock like glass under a yellowed sky. The Auphe ran a claw over stomach, almost lovingly and muttered. "This one will be the unmaker"

I didn't understand what he meant or care. All I knew was that some time later reality was ripped again and I collapsed to wake up not too far from our campsite.

I stumbled into camp, with a torn night gown, streaked with blood and other fluids. To my kin it was as if I had been gone for mere seconds, for me at least a few days.

They suspected what had happened. I didn't speak after that, not for several months…

Not until the round mound of my abdomen, made my disgrace clear to everybody.

XXX XXX

When it became evident what I bore my clan grew even more afraid. I heard the whispers I felt the fear roiling of them in waves and I knew what fear could and would grow into. A man crept into my tent a knife in his hand and the other trying to keep me quiet as he raised the knife and prepared to plunge it into my abdomen. I knew the man, he was my uncle. Part of me wanted to give up and let him end the monstrosity growing inside of me even if it meant I would die but the self-preservation I felt was too strong. Before he could follow through, he gave a gasp of surprise as my own knife slipped between his ribs and quietly stole his life. With shaking hands I gathered my few meagre possessions and fled into the night.

I was able to make a living, by conning and stealing, even so what chance did a pregnant sixteen-year-old have when hell's own creatures were chasing her. I tried to hid but they always seemed near, a handprint left on a window, or a footprint in the snow, they always left some reminder that they were there waiting, watching.

I felt the creature writhing inside of me as it grew. Images of whitish hair, reddened eyes, and teeth like knives all in infant form terrorized my nights and walking moments. I could scarcely stand to eat, to move, to live as everything I did would help to bring the monster inside of me to fruition. When I saw myself swell with impending birth, finally I couldn't take it anymore.

The next day I was sitting opposite an older woman sipping tea as she discussed the fee. Her head was wrapped in a shawl, her skin was cragged and her eyes sunken. The shawl she wore draped across her shoulders was ragged, but the small apartment she had was warm. The heat was welcome after the cold of outside. I didn't dare go to any of the clinics, I didn't want them to know of the monster I had inside of me. She was an old lady schooled in the arcane and supernatural, I refused to tell her the exact nature of the baby and let her make her own conclusions. There were many conclusions that one could come to...human females were known throughout lore to sometimes serve as surrogates for monsters. Her lips were pursed by the time my tale was finished but the promise of money soon put her mind at ease.

I emptied the purse I carried of the few bills it had and then was led to a darkened room with one bed covered in filthy sheets. I laid down after undressing and silently she examined me. I felt her poking and then the pain grew as she pierced the birth sac and liquid flooded my legs.

Cramps racked my abdomen, and minutes passed in a haze of pain, then she was holding up a damp infant. Her hands were trembling and she quickly dropped the small body on the bed as if she was holding a monster.

And she was.

The tiny body bore no resemblance to a human, but had the same exact features as its father. I stared at what had been inside of me. I reached out for the small creature who was wriggling still its reddish eyes open as it gave a wail that was inhuman. It was easy to press my hand against its mouth until finally its cries ceased and it was only a little more difficult to twist its neck until the cries would never be heard again. Tears were streaking down my face and I cried as the suddenly limp body fell from my hands onto the cold wood floor. Then unconsciousness took me. I awoke to the older woman lying on the floor with her throat slashed and a bloody message painted across the walls. It read: We WILL HAVE WHAT IS OURS.

The inhuman body was gone, and there was no sign of the Auphe, but I knew they wouldn't stop as I reread their message. I gathered my clothes, pulling them on. I spared one last regretful glance at the dead woman lying on the floor, gathered the my money from where she had stashed it and then slipped out the apartment and ran.

I hid, I lost myself. But I couldn't lose them, they haunted y steps waiting, watching, and I knew the time would come when I would feel those cold claws on my skin again as they tried to bend me to their will. I thought of killing myself to cheat them of their goal but even as I completed it one night while holding a cold knife to my throat that was an impossibility.

Before I could go through with the plan and cold grip clasped by wrist, drawing the blade away. A voice like nails on metal rasped in my ear. "Do not try to take what is ours, or we will take you where you will not have such an opportunity."

It twisted my wrist breaking the bone as easily as snapping a twig and then the knife fell from my grip only to be picked up by the Auphe. I collapsed to the ground crying , screaming, begging. "Please just kill me, kill me!"

He laughed, again and ran one pale finger down my cheek. "Only after we have the unmaker…only then."

Then it was gone, I felt it leave and didn't need to open my eyes to see the pulsating hole of light that would even now be fading away. I couldn't die…and I couldn't live…Not like this. It was easier to just forget everything.

Drinking left me blank enough that sometimes just for a moment I could forget what I was and what I would be forced to do. The men I let use me, I convinced myself were no worse than those who had in the past and would again…And at least the human males paid for what they took…mostly. Drugs were better than it all but expensive…they gave me precious hours of peace sometimes.

I met a man who was a little different than the others. He was gypsy too but wasn't close to his clan. He said they didn't see eye to eye but I knew the real reason…he wasn't like them. He liked to kill, I met him first in a seedy bar where I had gone to pick up a John. He killed a man after the man was too rough with me trying to just take what he should have paid for, it was nothing more than a drunken brawl…there was no need for killing blows, but he did so anyway. There was a cold smile on his face as he finished off the man with a clean knife cut to the throat.

Then he turned back to where he knew I was watching and motioned for me to come. He had a power radiating off him that said he could handle himself…I felt safe with him. We went back to my place and a night passed and then a day and another night. I woke up the next moment with a hangover and an empty bed. He had left me…I expected it and in a way was glad…but also bitter. I was tainted none would have me but to use me and then leave me with nothing.

Except he hadn't left me with nothing…though what he gave me was close to it.

XXXX XXXX

I was familiar with the sensation but I couldn't bring myself to find out the truth for sure until a few months had passed. An old clinic down the street from the newest place I had stayed confirmed it.

The nurse was dismissive, taking in my appearance and pegging me for what she already assumed I was. I ignored the look on her face and instead asked again to be sure. "You're sure they're nothing odd about the baby?"

The woman looked at me as if I was crazy…and maybe she was right to think I was. "Yes, miss, from the heartbeat I listened to and the blood work we ran it looks like the baby is fine but we can run more…."

I ignored the rest of her words as I stood up and walked out. The baby was human…I had expected as much but was still hesitant that my pregnancy had been a ploy of the Auphe. Now that I knew, it was a human baby I was torn. Maybe this child was something that I could love and would love me…or maybe it was only something that would be taken from me as everything else had been stolen. Maybe it would grow up to know me and what I had done and be repulsed by its own mother.

In the end I kept it, the promise of normalcy was too much. The Auphe were still around but they did nothing to interfere with the pregnancy. He was born small, pink, and human. Niko, my little angel, at least I told myself he was. The Auphe came soon after he was born and stared at the bundle in my arms. He looked at the baby; one claw poised above the child as if he was considering what to do…kill or keep. I almost offered him the baby…it would be better to give him up then take him from me.

Instead, the Auphe did neither. I wasn't left with a bloodied, slashed swaddle of blankets or with my arms empty. The world screamed and the Auphe disappeared through one of its gateways and I was left with little Niko.

I ran that night taking him, trying to keep him safe. But the Auphe seemed always close behind, they lurked like a theft in the night, always leaving me a reminder that I was at their mercy and at any moment they could take my little boy from me…I grew to hate him for the vulnerability he gave me…I grew to hate him for making me love him.

He was walking and talking when the Auphe came for me the last time. It was dark and I had just arrived home to the current dingy place that served as shelter at the moment. Niko was crying, he was cold, he was hungry, but a slap that I instantly regretted and enjoyed soon silenced him.

The silence was broken by the hiss of breaths and a rushing sound as air displaced from the gateways appearing. Then three Auphe appeared. Niko grew quiet. He was human, he had a primal fear of the creatures that every human had, but he was also used to their presence. They had visited him and me enough as a child that he no longer cried at the sight of them.

"It is time."

I didn't need to ask for what…I already knew. And maybe a part of me was glad that this would finally be over. They would do what they would…and then after they had what they wanted maybe they would kill me.

I hated them with every fibre of my being…and I wanted nothing more than to spite them. I knew it was a futile gesture but I did so anyway. They barely had time to move before I whipped a knife out my coat pocket and held it to my throat. "I'll kill myself before I come with you."

I expected them to take the knife as they had done in the past…but instead merely raised something up and the blood drained from my face. They had grabbed Niko; the Auphe traced one claw across Niko's throat and said. "You will or he will die."

They knew…They had a plan…they always had a plan and I had fallen right into it. They had allowed the baby, allowed me to love, to hate, to cherish him so they would have something to take away and something to threaten me with.

I dropped the knife, a bitter taste in my mouth. "I will do what you want."

The creature smiled and set Niko, who now had a small wet patch on his pants down. "Yess, you will—"

Before it could finish I hurriedly added. "But on my terms."

There was hissing as the Auphe's eyes flashed at what I had said. "You dare negotiate with uss human?"

"Yes, you can't watch me every moment." I thought quickly adding. "Give me what I want and I'll let—"I couldn't go on but the creature knew anyway. It seemed to be considering.

Finally the male Auphe the one who had started it all spoke. "What do you want?"

I wanted nothing from them, but for them to die and rot. However, that was not to be had, instead I wracked my mind glancing around the squalid apartment. "Gold, enough to last me years."

"Fine." The creature smiled this time showing teeth. "You are cunning, just like the mother of the unmaker should be…we chose wisely with you."

I wanted to gag but instead I clenched my jaw and stared at it letting all my hate show. The Auphe was unfazed, it said something to others in its on language and then one of the Auphe's gated away. It came back what seemed like minutes later with a bowl of some dark liquid.

"Drink" The male instructed me.

The taste was the same as it had been years earlier and it took all my willpower to keep down the slippery liquid.

"This will help you carry it." The Auphe said as he took the bowl, then he grabbed my hand and began ripping my shirt. I pulled back and it hissed in displeasure thinking I was going back on the agreement that had been made. But I refused to let it do what it would while his kinsmen watched like a voyeur. It felt like a long walk to my bed. I undressed trying to imagine he was just another John, just another transaction.

And there was no way I could believe the lie I so desperately wanted to. Its body was cold against mine. Its breath smiled of putrid death and he wanted to cause pain. Long minutes passed turning into hours until finally it drew away. Blood lay on the sheets, cuts and scratches trailed from my cheeks down to my legs.

"Remember the child is ourss."

Then it gated away leaving me alone to clean up as best I could. Just past the door, I could hear the quiet crying of Niko…my Niko. And I hated him even more when he crept slowly past the door. "Mama?"

He was scared, he wanted comfort and I hated him for it. I hated him for being a liability; I hated him for being something that could be used against me. I hated him for what I had allowed to happen because of him.

"Get out! Get out! Get out!" I screamed, my voice breaking on the last words, but Niko left. He wasn't fast enough to dodge the bottle I tossed in his direction and I heard him start crying, as he no doubt nursed his hurt arm. But I didn't care…I couldn't care….I sank down to the ground and pulled my knees up. The tears came…For me, for the child—no monster I carried, for the child I had birthed…

I left the apartment and didn't come back until late at night. Niko was sleeping at the table, the pitiful remains of an attempted peanut butter sandwich littered around. He awoke as soon as I neared and scampered away from me. I read the fear in his eyes and reviled in it…He hurt and I loved it.

Why should he feel good, why should he be happy when my own life was hell? Why should he have anything when I given up so much for him…the monster growing inside of me was his fault?

XXXX XXXX

The Auphe deposited the gold in the middle of the night. It was a fair pile, enough to last a long, long time. However, I ran through it. Drugs were easier to get now; the good stuff so that I could be passed out for days at a time…Alcohol went down like water…

It was better to be high, it was better to forget the reality of what was going on.

Niko grew to learn too. He learned to stay away, he learned to fear.

And a part of me didn't care….I didn't want to love, I didn't want to care, I didn't want anything that would make me weaker, vulnerable.

XXXX XXXX

The baby came unexpectedly. Cramps tore through my abdomen, they seemed to me worst than when Niko had been born, but maybe that was just because I knew what the end result of this labour would be. I crouched on the floor of the filthy bathroom of the place we were currently staying drifting in and out on waves of pain. Sometime later, it emerged. I wiped it in a dirty towel and knelt looking at the face, expecting to see the ghostly pale face of the Auphe or their ghastly claws but instead it appeared to be a perfectly normal human baby. Until…the baby opened its eyes.

They were red…red like the eyes of the Auphe.

I wanted to bash its brains against the tile of the bathroom; I wanted to kill the abomination I had created. Instead, I set it down, moving as far away from the creature as possible; tears came unbidden to soak my cheeks.

"Mama? What is it?"

I turned back to see Niko hesitating in the door, looking at the monster lying on the floor. "It's a baby?" His childish voice was questioning, curious and he was edging closer. I didn't answer and instead watched as Niko reached the thing, first touching it carefully, and then pulling the blanket away to see the creature better.

Niko stood over the creature looking at it, obviously wanting to hold it. His childlike innocence angered me, the way he could regard the creature with anything but horror was repulsive. "Here, take it! Take it…take the freak." I shoved the blanket into Niko's arms, and surprisingly his thin arms supported the weight. I was crying uncontrollably now, and nearly shouting the words. "Take the monster; I don't care what you do with it."

Niko backed away; staring at me like I was crazy…and I didn't care. I started to laugh too. It was unbelievable, totally crazy what had happened…like something out of a fractured fairytale, like something of myth. Only this time I was the one tangled in the story.

"What's his name?" Niko whispered the words, while continuing to back away from me.

"Name him…name him Caliban. Name the freak Caliban." The name was from the half monster half human in the Tempest, I had read part of the tale as a child.

I collapsed on the bathroom floor and fell asleep. When I awoke, I went out to find Niko feeding the thing a bottle of what must have been formula. He huddled protectively over it as I emerged…protecting it from me.

But that didn't matter I had no desire to see the abomination; instead I grabbed the nearest bottle of liquor and allowed myself to become lost in it. I came back to awareness and the sickening sensation of reality tearing flickered into being. I opened my eyes to find an Auphe, leaning over the creature, Caliban who was being held in a terrified Niko's arm.

The Auphe turned to look at me, and I told him. "Take it, take it and be gone."

At first, it didn't speak, and when it did, it was an order not a request. "No, the umaker must be raised human. It must know itss prey intimately."

I shook my head refusing the beast. "I will not keep that thing in my sight one moment longer."

The Auphe padded closer until it was so near I could feel its fetid breath on my face. "You will do as we ssay or we will make you wish you were dead."

Then it lazily stretched out a claw and ripped into my face carving a line from cheekbone to mouth. "We will take him when it iss time." The Auphe left after one last lingering glance at Caliban and then I was alone…alone except for my child and a monster.

I couldn't bring myself to care for them and the more Niko took care of that beast that he had decided was his brother, the more I hated him. I wanted to kill the thing, but I didn't dare lay at hand on the monster. The Auphe watched and they would know, they always knew. Instead, I confined myself to thrown bottles and harsh tearing insults. Caliban grew to look completely human, his eyes faded to a normal shade. But even though he appeared human to most, I could always tell he wasn't. The too pale shade of his skin, the small build, even the fierceness he was capable of was all markers of his lineage.

Still Niko loved him.

Niko tried to take him from me, leaving without telling me, saving up money to take him away, but I didn't allow it. His brother was the Auphes' not his…and to them he would be returned.

They came a night when I was drunk, too passed out to care what they wanted or what they would do. "Where iss he?" The Auphe that I recognized as his father hissed. I pointed, vaguely remembering that Niko was once again planning to take his brother away. He would fail; he would always fail, because even if he could escape me he couldn't escape the Auphe.

"It iss time, time for uss to take him." The sibilant phrasing of the words was what I had waited years for. Finally, I would be done with the monsters in my life; finally, I could get away from what had plagued me as a child.

The Auphe disappeared, and I fell back into my stuporous daze, only to be awoken by the smell of smoke. It was thick filling the room, and even as I stood and tried to make it out, I felt the licking flames of fire encroaching. They surrounded me, eating through my clothes, burning my flesh. The smell of my own-burnt body filled my nostrils and I knew I would die.

Even as I screamed in pain, I felt a slight relief. At least this all had finally ended, one way or another I would be free.

I died that night and the world would never know my story.

I, Sophia Leandros, born of the Vayash clan, mother of the unmaker never had a choice.


End file.
